aweigh0101

i really, REALLY want to butt into this thread and point out a second time that... DUAL WIELDING GUNS IS LOLWUT. it is simply the most absolutely terrible way a gunman could think of to utilize his weaponry of small arms, ESPECIALLY modern guns. this comment is Sawyer-approved. TM

Hijin, i want you to stand right in the middle of a big group of NPCs such as middle of Copperlane Market, and watch your FPS with feedback NPC circles enabled. Then disable the NPC feedback circles and watch and see if your FPS rise a lot.

none of them can begin to compare to the tender sweetness and shakespearean depth of bg2 community/dev-sponsored npc project saerileth. in fact, u can't even kiss the girls! not evne a peck on the cheek. jeeesus come on obsidian. sure, guns and murder for everyone but the true stuff of life, LOVE, can't be programmed in? instead they decide to make remakrs about pallegina's cloaca!!!!! OMG. i just hope TWM 2 lets use have a house inside our stronghold where we can begin a caring relationship with a female of our choice (perhaps even GM too, even tho she is a spirit. but we're the Watcher so he'll find a way) could buy/raise family units, etc, thru stronghold interface. also i still can't believe we can't wear more than 1 belt. MY GAWD it's not that hard! even kingdom hearts managed to get that tech in, sora can wear tons of belts for best build these are just glaring flaws i think. also other flaws is the companions are as dry as paste except for the two from TWM. the entire story and writing are flawed, and amateurish. plus, can't wear two belts even tho it is 100% possible IRL i can't even begin

i'm gonna make an sa account then, cos sawyer almost hit it perfect with the knockdown 20% dmg bonus, he just didn't ****ing make te ability a full-attack. right now it's a primary attack only, if it was a full attack it'd bump up fighters dps in a very reasonable way and make knockdown useful for any purpose, cc, dps, or whatever. give them a more active flair in combat. this is the key reason rogue abilities are so damaging, btw, they're all full attacks so **** doubles-down when they're utilized by a dual-wielding rogue. full attack knockdown would open up very interesting dual-wield fighter build. ok, not very interesting, but um better? this would syngergize beautifully with their increased recovery time reduction from armored grace and being -20% recovery time. would make the dual wield fighter a tanky-as-**** dual-wielding dps badass, but still not steal the dmg role from the rogue, as the rogue has many more additive dmg talents than the fighter and is the only one that can become a legit crit-build.

i want to dual wield capes goddamnit, one in the front and one in the back. i just don't understand why we can't do this the tech is already in. why can't we wear two belts either ?? they managed to get that feature working in kingdom hearts just fine sora has tons of gear ARGH come on OBSIDIAN JESUS

i have great trouble not using an optimal ability. it's a psychological thing. it's why my last potd playthroughs are sans-Aloth. i started hating myself for clicking slicken every encounter like some rote, banal boring automaton. btw, comparing fighter's +20% dmg bonus on their knock down to... whu, savage attack? lol what man. i think sawyer was almost on the PERFECT track here with the damage bonus to knockdown except for one crucial mistake; he didn't make knockdown a full-attack. If it was a full-attack, like the rogue strikes, it would apply the +20% dmg while dual-wielding, and this would be a relatively balanced way of making fighters take a more offensive role and giving them a bit more active flair, if you will. it would also make the knockdown ability indisputably useful to the fighter, instead of just "meh, it's aight". let's campaign to make it a full attack instead of a primary atk! yeah! wee. or not. game is quite fine as is right now, IMO.

youtube a video of a flintlock man, those things are so innacurate anyone shooting it one handed is crazy. they also have crazy kickback. fault's on obsidian tho, should've named them flintlocks, not "pistol". unlike dual-wielding melee weaponry which is historical and factual and for-realz yo, dual-wielding guns is super impractical and basically only done in movies. even a 2 pound baretta with a lady grip should be used two handed always.

it's not an optimal pick, though, i agree with that. could probably switch it for taking mental fortress at lvl 4, then at lvl 6 superior deflection, and body control at lvl 8. in fact i think that's exactly what i'm gonna do this time. i just really like stacking as much deflection as possible, might be a pyschological thing.

technically any unit can solo the game naked without ever taking a hit if you kite and cheese. nothing wrong with that. i'm a big fan of passives though, and having to activate swift strikes or whatever every single damn trash-mob encounter is way too much work for me. i like to take care of my wrist. like sensuki says it becomes banal and rote. i prefer classes with good passives (fighters and paladins) so i can concentrate my micro APM powerz on the casters, who are FAR more interesting to control. but this is all personal taste, of course. the game is easy enough anyway, even on potd, that i like to play a game with myself of "how long can i go using just auto-attack". if you spec and gear your units in certain ways you can CC/dps and tank damage without ever clicking on a single ability. until you run into spirits or vithracks of course heh.

i always take cautious attack on everyone on a PotD playthrough, but you can skip it on normal/hard. +8 deflection is REALLY good. might not seem like much now, but once you're act 3 and onwards omg enemies can get quite annoying and those points will really come into good use. if normal/hard, a good lvl. 4 talent pick for a paladin would be vulnerable attack since you're going sword-and-shield style and if you want him to do big damage. if potd i would pick cautious attack. for lvl. 6 i'd pick superior deflection always, regardless of difficulty. on lvl. 8 i like to take mental fortress if PotD, but if normal/hard i double down on the damage and pick savage attack, or if i'm using the paladin as an arquebus rifleman i'd take Gunner.

as far as the new affliction immunities are concerned i now think draining enchantment and the -5 on hit enchantment on uniques are the best as no enemies are immune to those. thankfully there is an estoc with -5 defenses on hit, and there is a great sword with draining, and there is also a scimitar with draining as well, so the three best weapon groups are still... the three best weapon focus groups. heh.

uninstall.exe talent pick then activate per-encounter install.exe spell from the unique bracers of Jedi Academy II.

the one thing the guy in the video says i 100% agree with is the new immunity clauses for most enemys really put a dent on barbarians. they're now even less useful, both their shout abilities are compromised and also their AoE-disabling. instead of prone-on-crit i think the most reliable/effective enchantments on uniques now are draining and the -5 defenses one, as no enemies are immune to those. barbs are really getting shafted. time to start the buff barbs campaign i suppose.

well, we know attacks consist of two phases, melee attacks i mean: attack phase, which can ONLY be sped up by the DEX bonus, and the recovery phase (the yellow bar) which is the part affected by the recovery penalty on armors and such. a fighter can pick the armored grace ability for -20% recovery time, and this is substracted directly from the recovery penalty on whatever armor they're wearing. if you add the pilferer's grip item then it's an extra -16% on the armor's recovery time penalty. a fighter wearing full plate for example, which has -50% recovery time penalty would then have -24% penalty instead, or in other terms have the same recovery as someone wearing Hide Armor (the one right before leather armor), but have 12 DR instead of 5 DR. now we take into account DEX bonus, which speeds up both phases, the attack AND the recovery, and it literally makes the fighter the fastest unit at the moment. you can give him full plate and have him be faster than someone wearing a robe, for example, give or take 5%, or give him a hide armor and have him attack at the same speed as someone NAKED. when we take guns into account they have 3 phases, attack/recovery/reload, and their longest phase is by far the reload one which is only affected by DEX, same as the attack phase. bows on the other hand don't have a reload phase. in any case, you're right of course rogue will out-damage this speedy fighter on crits, but the fighter will be EXACTLY %50 tankier (rogue base deflection is 15, fighter's new base deflection is 30), with equal Accuracy as the rogue, 25% more base endurance and 50% more base health and with access to two ability picks that give total of +25% dmg (weapon spec and weapon mastery). sure, not as crazy as the +55% the rogue's class abilities tack on but hey, still good! obv. not mentioning the +20% from savage attack or the vulnerable attack since those two talents are universal. he'll crit less, as well, but will hit more often, and be even further tankier thanks to critical defense, unbending and unbroken. remember he can instant-cast +15 ACC for base duration of 15 seconds per-encounter too. dual-wielding carries the least recovery out of all melee setups, being a base 20 frame of attack and 20 frame of recovery if using two fast weapons, and 30 attack / 30 recovery frames if using two average speed weapons. this means the armored grace + pilferer's grip fighter with 18-20 DEX dual-wielding Scimitars will out-DPS the Rogue on HITS, guaranteed, due to being faster overall than the rogue, so even if the rogue has more +DMG modifiers it'll even out, UNLESS the rogue starts critting. The rogue crits will put him ahead in the damage-per-swing race then. It all depends on the roll of the dice, then, since both have comparable ACC. footnote: enemy immunities will put a legitimate dent in the rogue's reliance on sneak-attacks by the way, which is why i'm not taking into account the huge sneak attack dmg modifier when talking about this. a lot of mob types now are immune to blindness, hobbling, weakening, poison and sickening. watch the video posted in the 2.03 patch news announcement thread. basically any mob that doesn't have eyes can't be blinded, any mob that doesn't have a biological system is immune to sickening/weakening, any mob that doesn't need to rely on their legs or floats can't be knocked prone, and any mob that doesn't have either corporeal form or is generally bipedal in nature is immune to almost everything; also enemy types that lack things such as a brain, for example a primordial ooze, or a dank spore, can't be charmed or confused, so on and so forth. the immunities are actually fairly logical IMHO, although the guy in the video is whining non stop about them. flanking will still enable rogues to out-DPS anything of course, but this means rogues will require even more micro than before to guarantee sneak attacks, or relying on ciphers flanking spell. i dislike too much micro but that's personal state.

witch hunter hmm how about a Paladin character, with talents in - Weapon Focus: Knight (longsword, battle-axe, morning-star, and crossbow) talent pick on lvl. 2 Spirit Hunter talent (increased damage and accuracy versus spirits, ghosts, specters, and the like, who are actually some of the most annoying enemies in the game so this will serve you well regardless of role-play) talent pick on lvl. 4 - Sanctifier (increased damage and accuracy versus Vessel enemies, such as Constructs, Vampires, and the games version of Witches called Adragans, also animated objects like the Animat, and so forth) talent pick on lvl. 6 you find a wickedly cool looking longsword relatively early in the game, inside Caed Nua (you reach that place around level 3 or 4, if playing normally) that comes specced specifically for slaying Spirits and it also looks awesome glowing fiery red. It has a good enchantment on it as well called Reliable that makes it more accurate, basically (it's more technical than that, but that's the end result) which will come in handy once you start facing enemies with high Deflection. you also find a Witch Hunter-type themed crossbow inside the mega dungeon on level 8 that grants holy powers, which will fit nicely with the theme. there is more stuff but i don't want to spoil everything. for the odd-numbered levels i recommend picking: - lvl. 1 Flames of Devotion - lvl. 3 and onwards feel free to pick paladin abilities as you like, since they're almost all good anyway. hard to go wrong. around lvl. 9 or so you unlock the paladin ability rightous soul which i think will put the cherry on the witch hunter theme as it protects against mind-affecting spells and the like. very useful, and i always take it.

patch 2.03 makes fighters undisputed king of single-target DPS imho -20% recovery from armored grace -16% recovery from pilferer's grip second chance scale mail (thanks eder!) = 1% recovery time without taking into account any DEX bonuses. Straight up broken! LOVE IT. gee, i think i'll use my base 1% recovery high deflection / high accuracy / high health / high endurance fighter to dual-wield purgatory and resolution, or hey, maybe i'll use the speed and durgan steel enchanted blade of the endless paths instead just for laughs while he plays Lawnmower Man with his spinning motor-arms. Sure, the rogue might achieve slightly higher dmg numbers per swing ON CRITS, but he has low deflection / low health / endurance, and with the same gear will have 21% recovery time. dunno bout you but i know who'll i'll be using. PS: This also means fighters will make EXCELLENT gunners and bow-men, btw. With 20 DEX (godlike, dex-Land), actually, make that 23 dex once you slap finneah's grace on him, i'm p. sure he's gonna out-DPS a ranger. Hell, if you can't be bothered to go get pilferer's grip (a TWM unique that doesn't require combat besides killing the initial ogres attacking stalwart), you can just slap a Hide Armor on him and achieve 0% recovery time.

i think that guy is blowing things out of proportion. Sure, some of the immunities may be superfluous, and yes, a lot of them only serve to HIGHLIGHT how LACKLUSTER a few of some of the martial classes' abilities are, but like AndreaColombo says: it only means CC isn't an I WIN strategy 100% of the time. Now you'll be more obligated to utilize those OTHER druid, wizard, priest and cipher spells people rarely use. I for one am thoroughly enjoying a brand-new PotD 2.03 playthrough i started today and REALLY REALLY REALLY enjoying NOT casting Slicken on every battle. I LOVE not-casting slicken. 10/10 would not-cast slicken again!!

man i just got one-shotted by an ankheg in bg1. THAT's quick and deadly.

sensuki, i pretty much agree with everything you've said but i just want to point out very quickly some points: there IS "dispelling" in PoE; setpieces like the dragon fights, the vithrack bounty, the xaurip hordes with paralyzing spear thrusts and most notably the fish-people from hell from TWM with their paralyzing ranged dart-guns. The "dispel" is having your priest cast Prayer against Imprisonment in order to decrease the duration of these status effects while also providing defense against it at the same time. There is another form of "dispelling" coming from the chanter with a particular invocation that decreases the duration of Frightened/Terrified by half, another popular affliction in other setpieces, like fighting undead raedric or fampyrs inside caed nua, or, again the dragon fights. the main problem is these examples i'm giving are extremely few and easily 80% of the combat doesn't require PoE's different style of dispelling afflictions since none of the afflictions are mortal (nothing like a Disintegration) and they vanish on end of combat. Oh, ciphers can also utilize spells that strip enemy buffs and give them to themselves. Counter-spelling is a legitimate point, and even Final Fantasy has a basic form of counter-spelling (casting Reflect on yourself or the enemy, hell, you can even do double-reflects in pre-FF7 games). Contingencies, sequences and counter-spelling are sorely missing. There ARE contingencies sprinkled throughout the class abilities but are mostly boring; fighter auto-rez ability or, probably the closest thing to a BG-style contingency llhengrad's something something image spell which triggers a shockwave and raises defenses when the caster's endurances dips. unfortunately, just like with the dispelling examples i mentioned these contingency examples are once again too few and exceptions to the rule. as for quaffing potions; this DOES exist in PoE mainly the potion of recovery (IIRC) which decreases any affliction's duration by half or some such. basically a universal antidote potion. the main differences here being that the afflictions themselves are less-than-lethal and afflictions aren't cured only shortened in duration. It's all rather needlessly convoluted IMO, most players would rather cure something and have a visible and immediate effect rather than halve a timer.

indeed, i forgot! that +5 to their base Def is really good. now they're the only martial class with high def / high ACC AND high health / high endurance. that's pretty crazy when you think about it.

how can i make a barb succesfully on-crit on potd? weapon focus gallant's aura accurate carnage that's +15 ACC to their Carnage right there :D if we add gear then it just becomes ridiculous: gauntlets of +5 ACC lilith's shawl +3 PER barbs have Low Def / Med ACC fighters have Med Def / High ACC monks have Med Def / High ACC (same as fighter) rogues have Low Def / High ACC rangers have Low Def / High ACC (same as rogue) paladins have Med Def / Med ACC

all of the other martial classes are better than the barbarian at straight-up damage-per-swing: fighters get weapon mastery, rogues get several damage talents, and monks get... a ton of cool stuff. heh. all three of these classes have better deflection and better ACC than the barbarian. the paladin is the only martial class that would normally do less damage than the barbarian straight-up but they still have better deflection, and their FoD ability has built-in +20 ACC bonus, and they bring a TON of other stuff to the table to help out the party. HOWEVER the barbarian has two things that set him apart: an insanely large pool of endurance and health, and the ability to strike multiple enemies per swing and inflict an on-crit or on-hit affliction to all of them at once. think hard about this for a moment! with high INT, PER and DEX the barbarian can: - pretty much permanently keep a group of 3-5 mobs prone on the floor by using any of the million prone-on-crit weapons, the best one being Tall-Grass. the fact that it's a reach weapon makes it even better. - keep himself almost indefinitely healthy by using a draining weapon, like Tidefall, sucking up endurance from 3-5 mobs per swing while already enjoying the largest pool of health/endurance available to any class. - keep those 3-5 mobs stun-locked with the awesome combo of the stun-on-crit warhammer and a second weapon that inflicts -5 on their defenses. he can also replace the stun-on-crit warhammer with the prone-on-crit battleaxe. these 3 options are available to all classes, but the barbarian is the ONLY martial class that can AoE-disable. that's pretty good. IMO i currently rank these martial classes like so: best single-target damage dealer: rogue best single-target tank: fighter best single-target hybrid of tanking and dealing damage: fighter/monk, it's a toss up. best single-target hybrid of melee and ranged: paladin only multi-target martial class that can AoE disable enemy groups: barbarian they're literally in a class of their own. i wouldn't consider them overpowered though (none of the classes are); the closest to an "op" class right now would probably be the paladin, mostly down to their auras, faith and conviction, their heals, their saving throws versus afflictions and flames of devotion being per-encounter and crazy accurate and available as either melee or ranged option. their on-hit abilities like inspired triumph and so on are also worth mentioning. i really really really really like paladins

i'll only buy poe 2 if firedorn makes a return he should be a chanter npc with deadly limericks perhaps endboss maybe ?? immunity to all afflictions except polymorph ....

Steam updates will be incrementally bigger in size because of the unified patching that accounts for all player variables (whether the Steam player owns expansion packs or not) TWM 1 shipped with patch 2.0 and Steam users that bought it had to download a 2-3 GB update (the XP + patch 2.0) patches 2.1, 2.2 and now 2.3 are each 500-1.5 GB's in size because they have to take into account expansion pack data regardless of whether or not the steam user owns the XP's. Sawyer said TWM 2 will ship with patch 3.0, and that this is probably the next update now after patch 2.3. Rumored release time-frames from TWM 2 are February-May 2016, but they are just rumors. So yeah, buying TWM pt. 2 over Steam will include the most recent patch, 3.0, and it will be a huge download. I don't know if there will be physical discs of PoE expansion packs, perhaps thru Amazon or what have you, which could be bought and installed and thus not have to download huge updates for the 3.0 patch. That could be worth looking into perhaps.

Having two paladins alpha-striking with FoD Arquebus shots then switching to melee is amazing. The ACC bonus on FoD makes the opening salvo devastating and should pretty much kill most regular enemies triggering Inspiring Triumph right at the start of combat. It's a really good setup. Paladins are really versatile. You can also use Arbalests instead of the Arquebus for the Flames of Devotion alpha-strike, and again due to the crazy ACC bonus on FoD the Arbalest volley will probably prone the enemy.